Culture: Magi-comic takes pleasure from pain

Frozen out by critics, Jerry Sadowitz is still looking forward to his next tour, writes Allan Brown

Jerry Sadowitz is planning to vote for the British National Party at the next election. No, really, he is. “The only party prepared to discuss the real issue in Britain today — immigration,” he says, jabbing the table of a cafe in Clerkenwell, central London, round the corner from International Magic, where he works part-time. “The hospitals don’t work, the schools don’t work, the transport system doesn’t work. Why? Too many people. Something has to be done and the BNP might do it.”

As an argument this is simply too ignorant to bother countering. As Sadowitz knows, the desire to shock obeys the law of diminishing returns. He has been a stand-up comedian for more than 15 years, saying unpleasant things about racial minorities, cancer and Aids sufferers, incest and paedophilia. The world’s continuing refusal to oblige him with a career has been met with a considerable ratcheting up of his